Oil is tumbling

West Texas Intermediate crude, the US benchmark, is down by 2.7%
at $49.32 per barrel, while Brent crude, the international
benchmark, is down by 2.4% at $51.72 per barrel as of 1:05 p.m.
ET.

Prices for both have fallen by about 7% this week.

Oil tumbled
earlier in the week after a smaller than expected
drawdown in oil inventories and the first jump in gasoline
supplies in several months.

On Thursday, Saudi Arabia's oil minister Khalid
al-Falih
suggested at an oil conference that production
cuts may need to continue, and
added that "there is an initial
agreement that we might be obligated to extend
to get to our target."

Kuwait's oil minister Essam al-Marzouq said
he expected the agreement to be extended.
However, Russia, which not a member of OPEC, has not
yet committed.

Meanwhile, the US oil-rig count rose by five to
688, according data from oilfield-services provider Baker Hughes
released on Friday. This marks the
14th week in a row with an increase.